Braver World
by littlevictories
Summary: This was an assignment for English class, though I did enjoy it qute a bit. It ends quite abruptly and I am sorry for that. I finished it in one night because it was due the next day, and I just kept writing, so around 2 o'clock I decided it was time to e
1. Default Chapter

I

Forty-nine days was all it took, forty-nine days, fourteen hours and seven minutes. Hemholtz Watson was tired of it all. Even with the transfer to the Falkland Islands and to a surrounding more fit for his intellect, after forty-nine days Watson was sick of this tired old world that he lived in. Despite the island's inhabitance's greater understanding, they were all still conditioned; they had all been created to fulfill one purpose and one purpose only. Perhaps Mustapha Mond, one of the ten World Controllers, said it best … they really were all doomed.

He had a headache. Staring down at his paper, Watson toyed with the idea of taking some _soma_, a wonderful but vile drug that gave you the maximum sensation with minimal complication. Watson had vowed never to touch the stuff again, but that had been the Thirteenth time he had given it up. _Soma_ may not be physically addicting, but mentally Watson was dead without it.

Dead.

Helmholtz popped three-gram tablets into his mouth, swallowed with a gulp of water, and leaned back in his chair. So much had happened in the past 2 months, too much to process then, and still too much to process now, but he tried anyway. Helmholtz remembered his friend Bernard and especially how ridiculous he looked when he was boasting about one thing or another, particularly because he was so small. Faintly, in the back of his mind, a voice told Helmholtz that he thought this way because of them, the controllers, and because of his conditioning. Watson knew that his subconscious was completely controlled by people other than himself, but he still pictured Bernard's boasting almost like a mouse, chatting on about how many cats he had killed.

Again Death.

Just a month and a half ago a rather new, but dear friend of Helmholtz's had, like himself, become disgusted with the society in which they both lived. Instead of transferring as Watson had, his friend John decided on a short drop and quick stop … he hung himself. Watson remembered vividly the heartfelt emotions that john had shared with him when his guardian died. He quoted some lines from an old poet and that enabled Watson to glimpse the sorrow that John had felt. But now, even after he was separated from his two dearest friends, an ocean away from one and a dimension away from the other, he could feel nothing.

"Blasted Conditioning," said Watson to no one, "It is the lightest cage in the world, yet is stronger than any metal!"

Watson stood suddenly, slamming his fist on the table, the chair he was sitting in toppled to the floor and he upset his glass of water which promptly spilled all over the table, quickly enveloping papers, pens, anything in it's path. The water spread out like a miniature flood all over the synthetic cherry wood table and began to dribble off the edge like a small waterfall.

Watson stood staring blankly at the water; the _soma_ was already starting to go to work, slowing his response time. Suddenly a stanza from a poem he did not know and could not know, appeared in his thoughts:

There is a willow grows aslant a brook,

That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream.

There with fantastic garlands did she come

Of crow-flowers, nettles, and long purples,

That liberal shepherds give a grosser name,

But our cold maids do dead men's fingers call them.

There on the pendant boughs her coronet weeds

Clambering to hang, an envious sliver broke

When down her weedy trophies and herself

Fell in the weeping brook. Her clothes spread wide

And, mermaid like, awhile they bore her up,

Which time she chanted snatches of old tunes,

As one incapable of her own distress,

Or like a creature native and indu'd

Unto that element; but long it could not be

Till that her garments, heavy from their drink,

Pulled the poor wretch from her melodious lay

To muddy death.

The effects of the _soma_ eventually took precedence over this verse and left Watson desperately clawing, trying to remember the lines.

"Damned Drug" spat Helmholtz. Again he focused his dwindling attention on the lines, but all that he could come up with was something about a gram being better than a damn, but a gram of what? All of a sudden it didn't seem to matter anymore; nothing seemed to matter. Helmholtz fell right where he was; fell to the floor and into a deep _soma_ induced sleep. All that could be heard in the room now was the subtle, almost silent splash caused by the dripping water off the edge of the synthetic cherry wood desk.

Watson woke up the next afternoon genuinely happy, he had no idea why he was on the floor or why the water glass had been upset. Helmholtz certainly did not remember the sonnet from last night.

This was not the first time this had happened to Helmholtz and though it was not a frequent occurrence, it happened enough to leave him with a queer sense of nostalgia; Helmholtz new he should be remembering something important, but the subject always escaped him.

Watson sat up and after rubbing his eyes, stared at the puddle on the floor but still could remember nothing of what happened last night. The dripping had long since stopped, however Helmholtz's eyes followed the path that the drops had taken up to the surface of the table which was hidden from him because of his angle of vision from the floor. From there his eyes wondered over to the open drawer on the right side of his desk that usually remained locked; this is where he kept things that he didn't want anyone (including himself sometimes) to find. As soon as the open drawer registered, Watson's heart sank. He knew he had taken _soma_ again.

This is a process repeated by Helmholtz all to often. He had tried to give up the vises that bound him to his "old world", however his conditioning ran deep and the more he tried to get rid of things like sex and _soma_ the worse he felt, and the more relish he took in these vises.

"What brilliant engineering" Helmholtz thought to himself. In Britain and the rest of the civilized world, people were no longer born … they were made.

Thousands of children where now created on an assembly line and given different conditioning to control things like their daily habits and their overall intelligence. Everything was based on a caste system from alpha to epsilon, alpha's being the best and brightest, but also the biggest danger to the society because they had the luxury of choice. Because he was an alpha, he could understand it, understand it but not control it. Not even the World Controllers could override their conditioning.

Watson couldn't help but be a little proud because his job had been, and is, to create rhymes and catchy jingles that are repeated over and over to children while they sleep. The job itself was relatively easy for Helmholtz because he was quite skilled. The hard part was keeping all of his rhymes acceptable.

"Acceptable," Helmholtz sneered, "By whose standards?"

It was thoughts similar to this that had Helmholtz loathing his peers and the system they thrived on, and so it was also thoughts similar to this one that lead Watson to the transfer office for the first and final time.


	2. Chapter 2

II

The relocation office's purpose was to decide if the person requesting the move would actually benefit from one, and then they select the best-suited destination. The first time Helmholtz had been transferred, the order for his relocation had come from Mustapha Mond, so the appointment was not necessary, so this was Watson's first visit to the Department of Relocation. Helmholtz placed the call that afternoon and got himself an appointment for ten o'clock the following morning.

Despite the conditioning he had received that made him sleep better, Watson did not sleep at all. He kept waking in a cold sweat and had trouble falling back to sleep. He refused to take _soma_ to help his slumber and because of the lack of sleep he was a bit off the next morning, but his head was clear and his mind sharp, and that's all Helmholtz cared about.

Watson's helicopter reached the roof of the Department of Relocation just as Big Henry was striking 10. Foregoing the elevator for only the third time in this life he dashed down the stairs and burst into the hall on the 14th floor. If nearly every building hadn't been built on the same floor plan, Helmholtz might have gotten lost in the labyrinth of staggeringly similar doors. Briskly walking down the hall and rounding a corner, Watson passed three alphas' that were discussing the pneumatic women they had each had the night before. One of the alphas was busy boasting about how he had had four in one night; for some reason Helmholtz felt that he were in a butcher shop.

Watson paused before he entered, taking a moment to stare at the writing on the tinted window that made up the upper-half of the door. In small text near the bottom it read:

The Department of Relocation

Above these words, in big bold letters it bore the same message that every other door in that hall and in the rest of England. Despite the immense number of times it was repeated, Helmholtz still considered it and it was as if it were his first real time. The lettering read:

**Community**

**Identity**

**Stability**

Without knocking Watson entered.

"Ah. Mr. Watson, fifty-sis seconds late I see," said the department Director, "Never mind that, lets start the interrogation shall we?"

"Yes lets," replied Helmholtz, disgusted at how genuinely cheerful this man was. "In this world," thought Helmholtz, "No one can be that happy. It's just not sane."

After answering at least five hundred questions (a hundred of which Helmholtz was positive were absolutely useless) and an hour of waiting, Helmholtz was granted a transfer. Though Helmholtz Watson had been labeled as a "possible security risk" he was transferred to a very queer island. It was quite an unorthodox island indeed, anyone that went there never even requested a return transfer. I was even rumored that people were actually still born there! (Of course these rumors were said to be false, if no one left then where do the rumors come from? Plus it was still a civilized society and the Bokanovsky Process enabled humans to create dozens of clones from one egg. There was no need for sexual reproduction). Despite the island's queer nature, Watson was still allowed to move there, partly because of his answers, (all lies, but Helmholtz knew what they wanted to hear) But mostly because he had a little nudge from Mustapha Mond himself.

Most of the World Controllers are afraid of sending anyone to this strange island, but Mustapha saw it as a way of getting rid of his dangerous garbage. As it turned out, Mustapha should have followed the judgment that the rest of the Controlling Council made, because if he still had picture satellites in orbit, Mustapha would see that this island was in no way shape or form following the rules the council had made. The crisis that was culminating on the main island of Japan could be the biggest thing since the nine years war.


	3. Chapter 3

III

Planes were off limits if the traveler was headed across the mainland, so after a short boat trip to mainland, Watson boarded the train headed to China with his transfer papers held tightly in his fist. Picking a compartment to sit in and ordering a caffeine drink, Helmholtz settled in for the five-hour trip. Travel had become extremely fast ever since the magnetic train tracks had been invented. The tracks used like-poled magnets to allow the train to hover over the tracks, cutting down on friction. Another oddity of this trip that enabled it to be so short was that this was a direct line with only one stop; the trip wouldn't take very long at all.

After leaving his compartment, Watson had to stop himself from taking the number of a young woman four times. Intercourse, like the _soma_, was something that Helmholtz thought he could think clearer without, but just like the case with the _soma_, his conditioning made it hard. His conditioning wasn't the only thing that hindered his ability to keep his pledge; Helmholtz was quite a handsome man, tall, witty, and an Elevator Squash champion. After turning down the fourth girl, Helmholtz decided to head back to his seat, but when he got there, his privet compartment was not so privet anymore, he was accompanied by Fanny Crowne, a woman that he had known from when he lived in England.

"Hi there hot stuff," says Fanny with a smile. Helmholtz made like he was going to say, "how'd you get in here?" but Fanny answered that for him. "I hope you don't mind, the conductor is an old friend of mine; we've had quite a healthy relationship for years, Ralph and I."

"Really?" asked Watson raising his brow. He knew that "healthy relationship" meant having numerous partners and never sticking with the same one for more than a week. Helmholtz himself was a poster child for this way of life only two months ago, but he had been practicing celibacy even before his move to the Falkland Islands. For the same reasons he was no trying to wean himself from _soma_, Watson had decided to at least test this brave new way of life.

"So…" says Fanny, breaking the awkward silence. "So where is it you're headed?"

"China"

"Ouuu!" Fanny squeals, "I've always wanted to go there! I myself am going to Afghanistan. Ever since that whole 'savage debacle' I've wanted to visit an uncivilized culture…"

Helmholtz could only smile a crooked little smile while Fanny continued, his friend John had been that savage that showed up and created quite a little disturbance in their little community. His backwards views on life that included monogamy and emotions, history and liberty. John saw the world in a totally different light from the rest of the world, and it was for that reason that Helmholtz was practicing to be more like John. The savage was the first person he had met that didn't say and act and think the exact same way Helmholtz did, and even though Helmholtz' conditioned conscience told him that it was all non-sense, his mind knew that if there was a person that could justifiably stand by such backwards views, maybe they weren't so backwards to begin with.

" … And then Henry never showed up at the platform, so I decided to come on my own and meet up with someone." Fanny's clear voice brought Helmholtz back into the conversation with a jolt. "So how about it?" asked Fanny angelically.

"How about what?" Asked Helmholtz. He had heard her the first time and knew what she was getting at, but he had been practicing this "turning girls down" routine for two months now, and it was now easy to consciously handle.

"How about you come with me to Afghanistan and then I accompany you to China. The paperwork won't take more than an hour to change."

There was a long pause. Sometimes they got the idea if he was just silent for a while.

"So… " Fanny said, "How about it?"

(My Ford this woman is persistent) "Actually Fanny, I'm not on vacation."

"Oh?" asked Fanny, perking up a bit in her seat. "Business trip then?"

"No, I've been transferred."

"Again!" says Fanny, aghast. For someone to be transferred once was extremely queer, but twice … it was unthinkable!

"Yes again. I have been given an assignment in Japan. Now if you will excuse me," said Helmholtz, "I need to get some sleep."

Helmholtz knew that the trip was way to short for sleeping of any kind, and he knew Fanny knew this. Even though this was an obvious blow off, and that was almost unthinkable in this world, Helmholtz was still an alpha and Fanny, being female, was a beta. Fanny would make no protest, the whispers that were repeated over and over in her ear always told her that the alphas were smarter and worked harder. It said that they deserved their stature is society, where as beta did less work and weren't as intelligent, so they came later. They came later when it came to _soma_ rations; they came later when it came to deciding on where to go on a date or vacation, they even came later in the alphabet. That's the way it was.

"Well alright then," said Fanny cheerily, "It's almost time for my stop anyway." And with that she was gone. Out the door, down the hall and turning left, went up on the second deck. As she reached the top of the stairs, she said to herself, "Beta is better…" she paused as she finished her pre-programmed thinking, "… but an alpha better know best."


	4. Chapter 4

IV

Arriving the China train station was nothing special. Everything looked exactly like it did when he left Europe. Even the ticket punchers looked the same. They had the same gamma green suits, the same shoes, but most importantly they had the same height, the same weight, and the same face. They were identical twins and obviously from the same Bokanovsky group. As Helmholtz had read on the trip over, China had no Hatchery or Conditioning center for making people and had to order them from other major cities. Obviously London had a few extra and sent over a few gammas. The train station looked exactly like The Kings T Station that he had left from in Europe, as it was the design that was adopted by all other countries after the nine years war.

Taking a taxi from the station, Helmholtz flew to the harbor where he boarded a special charter boat for the trip over to Japan. Helmholtz wondered why the taxi didn't simply fly him over to the Japanese mainland, but he was told that that was restricted airspace. Restrictions weren't uncommon, so this inconvenience did not bother him. During the trip Helmholtz ate a late lunch and played a game of Double-Sticked Multi-Layered Magni-Shuffleboard.

After docking, everything still seemed the same and it wasn't until later that Helmholtz noticed something odd. No one looked the same. Of course there were the alphas and betas that were always unique, but even the people running the taxis and doing maintenance work were 100 individual. And the farther into the city Helmholtz wandered, the less their uniforms matched, until people were wearing whatever color they wanted, and even _mixing_.

Helmholtz thought this all very odd and decided to go directly to the Department of Relocation to get his papers double-checked and to inquire as to this strange phenomenon. However, when Watson reached the office, he saw something he had never in his life seen before. First of all, none of the doors had the societies slogan of Community, Identity, Stability. But the thing that really got to Helmholtz was the sign hanging on the doorknob, it read in hastily scribbled handwriting:

Closed for the day

Sorry for the inconvenience

Closed? How could this government office be closed on Monday? It wasn't even near time to close. Helmholtz knocked, but just as the sign suggested, no one was there to answer. Instead of fuming over it, Helmholtz decided to go pick up a nuke able meal on his way to his new apartment. He hailed a taxi-copter and except for the lack of any Bokanovsky twins, saw nothing too out of the ordinary until he got to his apartment. Upon arrival, he punched his identification code into the keypad lock, but the light above the handle stayed red. Helmholtz tried the door anyway, but of course it wouldn't open. After six tries Helmholtz got fed up, asked the neighbor across the hall where the maintenance office was, and took the elevator down to the first floor where it was located. The attendant was slightly puzzled by Helmholtz's inquiries, but he led the way back up to the flat none-the-less and opened the door for Helmholtz by pressing the number "7" six times.

"This door will now accept any code you wish to put into it," explained the attendant, "but make sure you remember your number or you won't be able to get back in without my help."

"Thanks." Replied Helmholtz as the attendant was leaving. The only response from the attendant was a wave without even turning around. Because he had no idea what to enter besides his ID number, he entered it. 823543. The light went yellow for two seconds before turning green. Helmholtz promptly tried the door handle and it worked. Opening the door, Helmholtz got his third and largest shock of the afternoon.

There was nothing there. Whenever a person is transferred, they only ever keep their clothes (which were coming tomorrow morning) and everything else is provided for them before they move in, but there was no furniture, no plants, no imitated bearskin rugs, nothing. He stepped into his new room and everything was off. Both the kitchen and the door to the bedroom were to his right instead of them being on opposite sides of the main room. First Helmholtz opened the door to the bedroom, nothing there either. Watson stepped back out again and rounded the corner into the open kitchen. There was a stove and an oven. A microwave oven and a refrigerator, but there were no utensils in the drawers, no food in the refrigerator.

Watson pulled out his cellular phone and called information, got the number for the office downstairs and called the attendant.

"Hello?" came the voice of the attendant on the other end. His speech was slurred because he was eating something and talking at the same time.

"Yes," started Helmholtz, "This is Helmholtz Watson in room 714-" he was cut off by the attendant.

"You again?" at first Helmholtz was taken aback that he would actually be interrupted by a mere attendant, probably a delta, but secondly, he just didn't like this man's attitude. "What do you want?" came the voice on the other end of the phone." Watson decided to let it slide … this time.

"Yes," Helmholtz said in a clear voice. "I was just transferred here and it appears that you have forgotten to supply my room with the proper accessories. May I ask why?"

"Is this a prank?" came the voice of the attendant, quite clearer now that he had stopped eating. "I don't have time for this." And he hung up. Normally Helmholtz would have been disgusted with this attitude, and indeed he was, but he was to tired to go put the young man in his place and decided that he would do it tomorrow after his visit to the Department of Relocation.


	5. Chapter 5

V

The next morning Helmholtz got up and dressed with the clothes that had come that night and been left outside his door. He went straight to the Department of Relocation and got there only 7 minutes after opening. Again he walked up to the door, this time the sign was missing and the light was on inside the office. Helmholtz walked into the office.

Behind the desk was a woman, a quite stunning woman with brown hair and green eyes. She was wearing a dark Mulberry sport jacket (the trademark color of a beta) and shuffling papers around on her desk. Again Helmholtz was a little surprised, but not much, she was obviously the secretary.

"Knock next time would you?" She said without looking up.

"Excuse me," said Helmholtz, rather charismatically, "But where is the director of the Department of Relocation?"

"You're looking at her," said the woman, again without looking up."

Helmholtz laughed a little before he said, "Ha ha ha, that was quite a good joke, but seriously I really need to see the-" For the second time, Helmholtz was cut off.

"You must be Helmholtz." She said with a smile, finally looking up.

"And you must be the director's secretary. I need to know where the director is."

"Like I said the first time, I am the director," said the woman calmly. "Sit down and let me explain." Helmholtz sat in the seat that was offered to him with a wave of her hand. "You cam here from England correct?"

Helmholtz nodded.

"Well then, we have some fixing to do … you will never be exactly normal or free mind you, but it will be a lot better then how you are living now."

"Better then how I'm living now?" asked Helmholtz confused, "But I'm an alpha."

The woman looked as if she were laughing on the inside. It hurt Helmholtz and intrigued him at the same time. He hated it because it seemed to be making fun of him, teasing him, pitying him. On the other hand, this was the most genuine emotion Helmholtz had ever seen from anyone that wasn't John.

There was a pause. "Follow me."

"Where are we going?" inquired Helmholtz.

"We are going to a corner café that I know of, I haven't had breakfast yet and it appears that you haven't either. Come on, it's my treat."

"Oh come on now really, I should be paying! I will not be treated to breakfast by a beta."

Halfway out over seat, the woman paused and smiled again. "As you wish." She finished getting up and crossed to the door.

"I'm no Beta," she said opening the door, "And you're an alpha only as long as you think you are."

Helmholtz thought this was all extremely queer. Why would he want to be anything but an alpha? Alphas are top notch. But Helmholtz was hungry, so he followed her out the door and to the elevators. Helmholtz was about to press the up button when the director stopped him and pressed down.

"You mean we are going to walk there?" asked Helmholtz rather disgusted.

"Trust me." Said the woman flatly.

"Trust you? How can I trust you when I don't even know your name?"

"It's Washington," she said as they got in the elevator, "Ahska Washington."

As they walked to the café, Helmholtz couldn't shake the feeling of being extremely small and ignorant. The buildings were at the most twice as high as any regular buildings he had seen, and the people seemed to be bustling about to some sort of rhythm that they knew, but Helmholtz couldn't pick up. Everyone was moving on their own accord and there were almost no queues, and if there was one, it was extremely unkempt, winding this way and that. Helmholtz didn't like this at all.

The café had good food, but more choices than usual, and the people there were too abnormal. There was a little boy sitting behind Helmholtz that kept calling the woman across from him "Mama" and that made him just a little uneasy. When they had both finished Helmholtz asked Ahska why this was.

"Well," started Ahska, "This would probably be easier to explain if we were above it all. Lets go back to the offices and get my helicopter."

"Your helicopter?" Asked Helmholtz a bit startled, but with all of the new and different things he had seen and experienced, he was starting to get less flustered with each new development.


	6. Chapter 6

VI

After walking back to the Department of Relocation and getting in Ahska's helicopter, Helmholtz was starting to feel more at home. Watson had never thought he would be glad to feel more at home, because home meant _soma_ and girls and Controllers, but he did. His conditioning ran deep and the more he tried to get rid of things like sex and _soma_ the worse he felt, and the more relish he took in these vises, so the harder he tried to drop his old tendencies, the easier they came rushing back to the surface. After Ahska got in the driver's seat (highly unorthodox) Helmholtz climbed in the passengers side and she started the engine and they shot up into the air. Faster and faster they rose until they had just reached the flying altitude. Ahska stopped and let the helicopter hover there, suspended by its screws.

"That's better," said Ahska. "Now, what were you saying?"

"Ah where to begin!" said Helmholtz. "There's so many questions that I need answered and every answer leads to two new questions."

"I always thought that the best place to begin," offered Ahska, "Was the beginning." Before Helmholtz could comment, Ahska started talking again. "What makes you so uneasy?" asked Ahska.

"This place is so different."

"In what way is it different? Besides the obvious things like the lack of color coding and the child that said 'mother'."

Helmholtz thought for a while before he answered. "Chaos."

"I suppose to you this would seem like chaos wouldn't it? Well close enough, the difference is that there is no caste system here."

"No caste system!" said Helmholtz his voice squeaking a little, "That's preposterous!"

"It isn't," said Ahska, "And I'll tell you why."

"You bloody well better!"

Ignoring the last statement, Ahska continued with a question. "Why were you transferred to an island?"

"Because I requested it." Said Helmholtz defiantly, but then, "No wait, first I was sent to the Falkland Islands. They said I was a security risk, so they transferred me."

"Ah ha," said Ahska, "So was my mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, mother's, mother." (Helmholtz cringed slightly at the end, but Ahska continued) After the nine years war, all opposition to the cause was disposed of, however a few of them managed to hide books here in Japan after it had been deemed clean, but before all of them were destroyed. Eventually all the rebels were killed, but the books remained hidden here. About 50 years later, some gammas and betas and a few alphas came upon these books and read them." Ahska paused and as a side note she asked, "You know of your conditioning correct?"

"Know, how could I forget?"

"You don't like it then?" asked Ahska. Helmholtz caught himself before he said no.

"Its comforting," he said truthfully, "but in the same way over and over. The routine is getting old."

"I see, well back then, science had not perfected the system that conditions the children, so these gammas and betas and alphas were more susceptible to the 'evil' that these texts held. All of a sudden, all of them, even the gammas for they were more intelligent then, could see the flaws inherent in the system. You system."

"What's wrong with it?" asked Helmholtz, "It's perfect."

"It's not." Said Ahska, "It's not because it was made by men, and men that knew of Christ and knew of human rights and knew of poverty. All of these things still seeped into your system, because people influenced by them made it."

Helmholtz was looking thoroughly confused, so Ahska tried to simplify it for him.

"You have heard of Christ, God, and Christianity correct?"

"A little," replied Helmholtz, "My controller Mustapha Mond told me a little about them before I was re-assigned. He said that they were brutally oppressive and forced people into small living quarters with each other. Small dirty little houses, living with you … mother and father, and despite the dirtiness and smelliness, it still made people feel more for one person than another. It made them love their parents."

"Good." Said Ahska.

"No not good." Said Helmholtz, "If people love someone more than another person, that reduces productivity and-"

"Let me cut you off there. Is this type of brutal oppression present in our current societal set up?"

"No." Said Helmholtz flatly.

"I disagree." Said Ahska, and then, "What made you answer so quickly?"

"Because I know the answer, just like I know that you are supposed to be a beta and I am supposed to be driving."

"How do you know this?" she asked.

"Because that's the way it is."

"That's the answer I always get. Give me a reason. Give me a logical reason as to why I am should be a beta. I have clearly shown that I am as competent as you and can handle machinery like this helicopter as well as you and yet you still think I should be lower than you, the alpha male. Why?"

Helmholtz caught himself just before he spit out a predetermined answer. His weeks of trying to be different just to see things differently had allowed him to glimmer her point of view. Until two months ago someone else was running his conscious thoughts, so why would his subconscious be any different. In fact, it must be completely controlled by this system of repetitions. The smile had returned to Ahska's face, but this time he was not angered or confused.

"That answer," explained Ahska, "Was programmed into you by someone else. You are a slave to their thoughts. For the most part these thoughts make you feel what you feel."

"This system is so stupid!" said Helmholtz starting to lose his temper.

"Is it?" asked Ahska, "It works doesn't it? Who's to say that controlling civilian thought processes is a bad thing? Bees work the same way as your caste system and seem to be doing fine; but some of your alphas, the most intelligent people in your society, are rejecting their teachings. Why is that?" Helmholtz just looked at her helplessly. "Because they are teaching the wrong things. You said yourself that religion was oppressive right? You were correct."

"Why were they though?"

"You're shedding your previous ways of thinking quickly." Commented Ahska. "They were oppressive because long ago, the world was matriarchal … think of it as having nothing but alphas and betas, but the betas had more credibility … anyway, the land was publicly owned, like it is now, but soon it was split up amongst the males. Because land started to become a big deal and it was hard to find the father of a child, they needed a system to regulate which child belonged to which father."

"And that system was religion?" Helmholtz guessed.

"Bingo! Thus monogamy was born. Now you sleep with whomever you want correct? Well that is what it was like way back then too, that's why it was so hard to tell who the father was. The easiest way to solve this problem was to force everyone to get married and have a nice little family. Now that the male and female were hitched, theoretically any child that came from that woman was the child of that man."

"So what went wrong?"

"Two things," said Ahska, "One, mankind was never meant to be completely monogamous, so there was still some sleeping around and some children being born out of wedlock. Not that big of a deal to you, but it was as wrong dating one girl forever is for you. Secondly," continued Ahska, "As soon as the testosterone driven male got a hold of a little power and notoriety, he realized what he was missing and wanted more, so he used the only tool at his disposal, Religion. The Christians and the Muslims especially built oppressing rules and safeguards into their society. All of a sudden images of women being looked down upon by god were everywhere. Anything from ridiculous rules like women having to cover their heads when they go out, to original sin, the story of Adam and Eve were instituted into everyday life."

"But that would cut down on productivity," exclaimed Helmholtz, "First of all, if women were looked down upon, then people would start distrusting women with tasks and that would diminish the workforce."

"And that happened," said Ahska, "All throughout the Victorian era and into the twentieth century women were not supposed to work. They were supposed to stay at home and watch the children."

"Secondly," said Helmholtz continuing with his idea, "They didn't have the Bokanovsky process, they had to have one child at a time. If women were only permitted to reproduce with one man, then the population wouldn't grow fast enough."

"Christianity, especially Catholicism fixed that," commented Ahska, "it was wrong to have sex outside of marriage, but once you do get married, have babies as much as you can. That why all of them will become Catholic and have plenty of children in their families. This will continue to multiply for centuries, all of them becoming Catholic."

"Fascinating." Exclaimed Helmholtz.

"And the more generations, the more revenue. Religion almost always has some sort of small payment that you voluntarily give to the church. The more children are born, the more Catholics there will be to offer money."

"So it was actually quite intelligent."

"Yes. Do you remember when I said that some of this seeped into your society when it was created?" Helmholtz nodded. "Well that is one of them. When you walked into my office, you automatically assumed that I was a secretary and a beta because the makers of your way of life were predisposed to that way of thinking. They thought that females were below them."

A tiny little voice had said something in the back of Helmholtz's mind when this conversation started. He didn't believe it at first, but it was repeating itself over and over becoming as annoying as an itch you can't reach. Helmholtz thought now would be an opportune moment to at least say it allowed.

"History is bunk."

"Quite the contrary!" said Ahska excitedly, "We can learn immense amounts of information from history! We learn best from our mistakes; even your society knows that. During early conditioning, if a child crawls to close to a flower, what happens? They get shocked! So the next time they see a flower they don't go near it. They have learned from past experiences. History can teach us plenty."

Helmholtz's mind was reeling. He had just had his whole world turned upside down. If what this woman was saying was true, and she had no reason to lie, then his society was no better then the old one. Even after the Nine Years War and all those people died … we've been shocked over and over again, and we still haven't learned.

Ahska saw Helmholtz thinking and knew that she had accomplished what she wanted to do. She had opened his eyes, but she still had to be sure that he was useful.

"Tell me what you're thinking." She said.

"I was putting the pieces together," scowled Helmholtz, "And now I am trying to figure out a way to get even."

"Fortunately we have saved you the trouble." Helmholtz looked perplexed but Ahska continued, "We have had enough people transfer here that we have been able to produce a genome that, if introduced into at least a donor womb, would result in a generation of free thinkers."

"How?"

"It makes them resistant to the hypnopædia treatments, meaning that physically they can still be conditioned, and their overall I.Q. can be regulated…"

"But morally they are untainted!"

"Precisely. Now, I will warn you, there is a danger that they will revolt and spill more blood, but if we have enough people over there working to curb any hatred, then everything should work out fine."

"And that will be my job?" asked Helmholtz.

"Partly, because you are the most recent arrival, we will also have you administer the genome altering serum in England. It will look less suspicious if the man who was moved twice in the past two months decides to move back."

"But I don't work with the embryos."

"You know someone who does don't you? And if not you're an alpha and can get into that area with your access codes. We will train you on where to place it and all that, all you have to do is you'll do it. Say you'll bring down this new age of oppression."

Helmholtz was suddenly aware that he was becoming attracted to this woman. It had taken him a while because he had never felt this way before. He was ready to do anything for her just to be noticed. For some reason, though she was beautiful, he was not attracted to her looks; it was her thoughts he was interested in. The way she thought fascinated him. The logical process was so far unmatched by anything he had experienced. He wanted to hear more.

As Ahska's words started to seep in, Helmholtz knew he was going to do it, but to his conditioned mind, he still needed a reason, any reason, and to his conscious, newly unconditioned mind, he had to justify his actions with a noble cause. Again he thought of the millions that lost their lives in the Nine Years War. The fact that they lost their lives meant little to nothing to him, but death had meant something to John, and so John became his cause.

"I'll do it." Said Helmholtz triumphantly. "I have a speech of fire, that fain would blaze, but that this folly doubts it."


	7. Chapter 7

VII

Two hours after the final transmission from Japan had come over the speaker Mustapha Mond hung up from a videoconference with the rest of the World Leaders. His voice had been stern and his persuading excellent. When these two factors mix, there is a unanimous vote. It had only been done once before but that didn't matter to Mustapha Mond.

"All that matters now," Mustapha Mond had said in the conference, "Is that this enemy is destroyed. We know what they are capable of because of the transmitter I planted on Mr. Watson. Unbeknown to him the entire plan came to us. As Controllers we have an obligation to keep our citizens happy, our citizens are happy with their way of life, and this new development threatens that very way of living."

Precisely 7 hours and 28 seconds later, 14 nuclear missiles hit Japan, devastating it's population for a second time in history. Mustapha knew that to end the threat of a pest, you must end the whole hive.

To the common man, history may be bunk, but to any leader, it is the only thing they can learn from.


End file.
